


won't ever get caught (ever be found)

by senroh



Category: Naruto
Genre: Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Alternate Universe - Soulmates, Gen, M/M, MadaTobi Week 2018, Soulmate-Identifying Marks
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2018-07-29
Updated: 2018-07-29
Packaged: 2019-06-18 07:44:27
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,340
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/15480966
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/senroh/pseuds/senroh
Summary: Tobirama can feel soulmates.  The hollows seemingly carved into their souls to match against one another perfectly until they discover one another and the way they blend together when they meet. He also knows that there hasn't been a single case of a soulmate pair not meeting each other, even in the entire long and bloody history of the elemental nations.Is it any wonder that he avoids meeting his for as long as he possibly can?





	won't ever get caught (ever be found)

**Author's Note:**

> This is at least seventy five percent procrastination, so if you see any typos or other mistakes, please let me know. This is the first work I've posted on this site, so I hope all the formatting works like I hope it does, lol.

The first time Tobirama felt it he had no idea what he was sensing. Two separate energy signals meeting and entwining together, brightening almost blindingly in his senses before dimming, like the flash of a hammer striking at heated metal, folding them together and blending them at the edges until it would be impossible to separate them without breaking both. 

He had an inkling at the time what it might be, having already known about soulmates since he was one of the rare (though not too rare, Hashirama also had one, as did several of their other clan members) number who had one, shown by the mark at the back of his neck. 

As he grew, his theory was confirmed as he met a pair of soulmates who had found each other, their souls entwined in the the same way. Eventually as he got better at discerning minute details with his senses, even getting precise enough to sense emotions, he was able to discern soulmate pairs who hadn’t yet met, their souls shaped to fit together.  
He never let his father know of his talent, at least not the extent of it or that he could sense souls at all. Butsuma had always disdained soulmates, finding them nothing but a hindrance, and looking at his two eldest as if they were lesser for having them. 

Tobirama was careful to never give Butsuma cause to doubt him or his commitment to their clan, and even drew as much of the strict man’s attention away from his brothers as he could.

Then Kawarama died. 

There was a skirmish with the Hagoromo clan at the border where he was patrolling with a group of older clan members, none of them survived.

It was after that, and a funeral that nearly turned into a disaster because Hashirama couldn’t keep his ideals quiet, that his older brother began disappearing to go down to the river and meet with another boy, who Tobirama noted with some considerable surprise, was his own soulmate. Focusing his senses more finely on the two of them, he found that the boy was an Uchiha by his chakra, fire natured and patterned in that certain way around his eyes that was indicative of the potential of awakening the sharingan. 

A part of him longed to join his brother and meet his soulmate, but the rest of him held back.   
His father, though busy with the running of the clan, had enough time to spare for his sons that he would notice if two of them started to go missing all the time, and he was sure that the other boy’s parents would notice his absences as well.  
Not only that, but a part of him whispered that if they didn’t meet until they were older, they had less chance of dieing young, because there hadn’t been a single case in the elemental nation’s long history of war and bloodshed where soulmates didn’t meet.

The rest of him, the part that he didn’t want to listen to but was forced to more and more as his father’s attention focused on him, told him that his soulmate was an Uchiha and he couldn’t trust him, no matter that they were souls meant to intertwine one day. That they were supposed to become each other’s everything. 

And then Itama died.

Cornered on his way back from Uzu by a group of Uchiha child-hunters and slaughtered. 

And Tobirama… hardened, but the part of him that had nurtured the idea of soulmates and kept an eye on his Uchiha soulmate even when the boy was on the fringes of his impressive sensing range, that part of him only watched Hashirama’s meetings more closely and told their father nothing.

And if a part of him whispered that if he had only orchestrated a meeting with his soulmate sooner he would still have a younger brother… well, having another reason to train and study and invent was hardly something that anyone would object to or even notice.

(His brothers would have objected to his fervor, to how he practically had to pour himself into bed each night, only to wake up not many hours later at the phantom sensation of their deaths too far away to do anything about and begin all over again, but now Hashirama was the only one left, and he was… distracted.)

It was his heightened awareness that allowed him to notice that the Uchiha boy was being followed to his meeting with Hashirama months after Itama’s death, and though his brother was closer to the Nakano than the Senju compound, Tobirama was still the faster of them, even out-pacing those of his clan who were many times more experienced than he. 

\--

Hashirama startles as Tobirama drops out of the treetops in front of him breathing heavily. Worry immediately shoots through his heart, he rarely sees his brother exert himself this hard when just running (he rarely sees his brother at all anymore, an insidious voice whispers at the back of his mind). 

“Tobirama, what’s wrong? Has something happened?” Hashirama asks, mind gong through anything that might be pressing enough for Tobirama to chase after him so swiftly. 

His little brother merely shakes his head, taking a moment to get his breathing under control before meeting his eyes with a fierce gaze. “Not today.” He says with an undercurrent of steel in his voice, “You shouldn’t go to the river today, Anija.”

Hashirama stiffens, realizing that Tobirama had to have known that he had been meeting with Madara for sometime, and he wonders when his brother had followed him, wonders who else might know of this.

With a vague noise of impatience Tobirama tries to shuffle him back in the direction of the compound, and when Hashirama holds his ground it turns into a hiss of frustration. “Your friend is being followed.” He tells him, and Hashirama’s heart leaps into his throat.

He immediately tries to go around Tobirama, thoughts racing, Madara must be in danger, he has to help! But Tobirama blocks him from pressing forward.

“Anija!” Tobirama snaps at him, “They can’t find you together!” 

Hashirama vainly tries to get around him again, helpless frustration kindling in his chest, “But Madara!”

“Will be in just as much trouble as you would be if his father finds out about you meeting with each other!” 

Hashirama stills, eyes catching on Tobirama’s irritated but still solemn expression, a thousand thoughts flitting about in his mind without touching down. “You… know who he is?” Hashirama murmurs, confusion finally allows his brother to tow him along.

“Yes, I know who he is!” Tobirama huffs at him, “Really Anija, if you’re going to have clandestine meetings with an Uchiha, at least be more careful and change your locations every once in a while or someone is bound to figure it out!” 

And Hashirama gapes at his brothers back, “Uchiha?” he asks distantly, thinking of the boy so much like himself, with the same feeling of loss for their brothers, and the same desire for a future of peace, and then focuses back on his brother... who has stopped and is giving him that look that says that he has had doubts about his older brother’s intelligence before and is now remembering every last one of them with new additions.

Hashirama pouts at him, deeply feeling that he is undeserving of such a sentiment, but hope is unfurling inside him. If a member of their greatest enemy clan can have the same desire for peace as he, then perhaps their dream isn’t as far as he thought! He bounds forward, a bounce in his step and optimism brightening his outlook. He might not be able to meet with Madara today, but as long as they can meet again as friends then there is hope for the future they both want.

In his hurry to get back he misses the look of longing in Tobirama’s eyes as he glances back toward the river before following him back towards their home.


End file.
